UBS Promotes 60 Advisors in Big Move to Win More UHNW Clients

March 8, 2019

UBS Group has promoted close to a hundred financial advisors and support staff in its Americas unit in a bid to capture more ultra wealthy clients, according to news reports.

In all, 60 advisors and 36 support staff in the firm’s Americas unit have been made managing directors, Tom Naratil, co-president of UBS Global Wealth Management and president of UBS in the Americas said in a LinkedIn post, according to Bloomberg.

“We continue to strategically invest in the Americas as a key area of growth,” Naratil said in a statement cited by the news service. “Our advisers are the most productive in the industry and these promotions are in recognition of their accomplishments.”

The move comes as the Swiss-based company tries to bring on more billionaires and wealthy families, Bloomberg writes.

While the firm’s global operations make it the world’s largest wealth manager by assets, with $2.26 trillion, its Americas operations lag behind wealth management businesses at rivals Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, according to the news service.

Tom Naratil

The company has been targeting America’s ultra wealthy in recent months. In November, Juergen Wegner, chief of UBS subsidiary Swiss Financial Advisors, which handles U.S. customers’ funds brought to Switzerland, said the company intends to lure $70 billion over the next three years from the segment.

And within that timeframe, UBS wants to be the wealth manager for 70% of North American clients with $100 million or more in assets. Part of that plan includes recruiting dozens of financial advisors from its competitors based in the U.S.